Introduction to Moral Issues DO ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS?

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Introduction to Moral Issues DO ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS?

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 Peter Singer, and the Animal Liberation movement:  PETER SINGER

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 Machan: through utilitarinaism….the idea of animal liberation has emerged.  For Utilitarians, so long as the bulk of the relevant creatures enjoy a reasonably high living standard, the moral and political objectives have been met.  But if this goal is neglected, moral and poltical steps are required to improve on the situation.  Animal liberation is such a step THE CASE FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS

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 MACHAN: I will argue that to think animals have rights is a category mistake-it is, to be blunt, to unjustifiably anthromorphize animals, to treat them as if they were what they are not, namely, human beings.  Rights and liberty are political concepts applicable to human beings because human beings are moral agents in need of what Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick calls “moral space”.  Moral space is a definite sphere of moral jurisdiction where the authority of human beings to act is respected and protected so individual humans, and not intruders, govern themselves and either succeed or fail in moral rights  Animal Rights theorists proposes that animals be tried for crimes and blamed for moral wrongs. HUMAN VS ANIMAL RIGHTS

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 When a right is considered natural, the freedom involved in having this right is supposed to be justified by reference to the kid of being one is, one’s nature as a certain kind of entity.  John Locke in the Second Treatise on Government, argued that each human being is responsible to follow the Law of Nature, the source of morality.  But to do so, each person is also required to have a sphere of personal authority, which is identified by the principle of the natural right to property, including one’s person and estate. WHY MIGHT ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS?

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 Philosophers have made the attempt to demonstrate that if we are able to ascribe basic rights to life, liberty, and property to human beings, we can do the same for many of the higher animals  Two arguments for similarity to humans:  1. They subscribe to Darwin’s thesis that no difference of kind, only a difference of degree, can be found between other animals and human beings  2. Even if there were a difference in kind between other animals- especially mammals- since they both can be shown to have interests (e.g. avoiding pain) for certain moral and legal purposes, the difference does not matter, only the similarity does.  In connection with both of these arguments the central conclusion is that if human beings can be said to have certain basic rights…then so do other animals. SIMILAR RIGHTS FOR ANIMALS, HUMANS

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 But others choose to choose to defend animal rights on utilitarian grounds- to the extent that it amounts to furthering overall pleasure or happiness in the world, animals must be given equal consideration to what human beings receive.  Thus only if there really is demonstrable contribution to the overall pleasure or happiness on earth may an animal capable of pleasure or happiness be sacrificed for the sake of some human purpose.  Barring such demonstrable contribution, animals enjoy equal rights with humans. SIMPLE UTILITARIAN

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 Reckless disregard for animal life or well being shows a defect of character, lack of sensitivity, callousness  In fact: According to a 1997 study done by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Northeastern University, animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people and four times more likely to commit property crimes than are individuals without a history of animal abuse.  The FBI has recognized the connection since the 1970s, when its analysis of the lives of serial killers suggested that most had killed or tortured animals as children.  Other research has shown consistent patterns of animal cruelty among perpetrators of more common forms of violence, including child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse.  In fact, the American Psychiatric Association considers animal cruelty one of the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder. RECKLESS DISREGARD FOR ANIMAL LIFE

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 How do we establish that we are more important or valuable?  Normal Human life involves moral tasks  We are subject to moral appraisal, it is a matter of doing whether we succeed or fail in our lives  The process that leads to our success involves learning, among other things, what it is that nature avails us with to achieve our highly varied tasks in life.  Clearly among the highly varied tasks could be some that make judicious use of animals-for example, to find out whether some medicine is safe for human use, we might wish to use animals. WHY WE MAY USE ANIMALS

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 If we did not have rights, we would not have a sphere of personal jurisdiction and there would be no clear idea as to whether we are acting in our own behalf or those of other persons.  No one could be blamed or praised for we would not know clearly enough what the person is doing, or his or her authority to do or in someone else’s authority.  The reason moral distinctions are still possible to make under such circumstances is that in fact-as distinct from law- there is always some sphere of personal jurisdiction wherein people may exhibit courage, prudence, justice, honesty, and other virtues  But where collectivism has been successfully enforced, there is no individual responsibility at play and people’s morality and immorality is submerged within the group. WHY INDIVIDUAL HUMAN RIGHTS?

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 There is no valid place for rights in the non-human world. The non human world is the world in which moral responsibility is for all practical purposes absent.  The fact of occasional borderline cases of animals acting morally is simply irrelevant, what is crucial is that the generalization is true that human beings are basically different from other animals, by virtue of a “crucial threshold in a continuum of degrees (of moral behavior)”  Under Locke’s theory of individual rights, the only justification for the exercise of state power, the force of law, is that rights of individuals have been violated. Animals are not the type of individuals which can exercise rights.  If the Lockean doctrine of rights had not become so influential in formulating laws…advocates of animal rights would have had influenced society to give equal protections to animals WHERE IS THERE ROOM FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS?

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 Animals are not the sort of beings with basic rights to life, liberty, and property, whereas human beings, in the main, are just such beings.  Yet we know that animals can feel pain and can enjoy themselves and this must give us pause when we consider using them for our legitimate purposes  We ought to be humane, we ought to kill them and rear them and train them and hunt them in a fashion consistent with such care about them as sentient beings. CLOSING THOUGHTS